Pre-slotted nuts, your recommendations

Started by rockstar_not, May 01, 2017, 11:31:27 AM

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Well,

The saga continues.  I ordered the Graphtech TUSQ nut recommended by the tech support from Graphtech, and what came today has at least one if not two defects.  Note the extra material and misshapen slot at the high e string.

The other thing that seems odd, but perhaps is normal with Graphtech TUSQ nuts is the protrusion on the bottom of the nut.

This came in sealed packaging from Graphtech, but I did buy it from reverb.com.

graphtechPQ6400-00 by Lakes_of_Colorado, on Flickr

I know this feeds the opinion that I should have just bought the whole slot file setup and bone blank(s) discussion earlier in the thread.  I've asked the retailer to send me another, without the issues this one has - at least one without the actual slot issue
2000 L-03-E
2012 Epiphone Nighthawk Custom Reissue
1985 Peavey Milestone
2004 SX SPJ-62 Bass
2008 Valencia Solid Cedar Top Classical
2015 Taylor 414ce - won in drawing
2016 Ibanez SR655BBF
???? Mitchell MDJ-10 3/4 scale dread
???? Squier Danocaster

My Sound Cloud

Yikes, that's clearly defective! Am kind of shocked at that.

I sympathize with your disgust, and you're right in requesting a replacement. Still, it's just a matter of sanding the bottom tab off and the excess off the E slot. Maybe chalk it all off to bad luck and practice on fitting that one till the new one comes.

So, how's the string spacing on that compared to the defective Taylor?
Larrivee OO-05 • Larrivee OOV-03 SS • Larrivee OO-44  • Taylor 322ce • Strat • Soundcloud https://soundcloud.com/jpmist

Quote from: jpmist on May 13, 2017, 06:20:48 PM
Yikes, that's clearly defective! Am kind of shocked at that.

I sympathize with your disgust, and you're right in requesting a replacement. Still, it's just a matter of sanding the bottom tab off and the excess off the E slot. Maybe chalk it all off to bad luck and practice on fitting that one till the new one comes.

So, how's the string spacing on that compared to the defective Taylor?

Well, the slot on the high e of this defective nut is much too wide, so it's not usable.

I tried to measure the low E to high e distance and it's slightly smaller than the one that came in the Taylor, but it's kind of hard to measure since the high e slot is not well defined.

2000 L-03-E
2012 Epiphone Nighthawk Custom Reissue
1985 Peavey Milestone
2004 SX SPJ-62 Bass
2008 Valencia Solid Cedar Top Classical
2015 Taylor 414ce - won in drawing
2016 Ibanez SR655BBF
???? Mitchell MDJ-10 3/4 scale dread
???? Squier Danocaster

My Sound Cloud

Nothing beats making your own nut; customized to your preferred string-spacing and height above the first fret.  Sure, it requires an initial investment in some basic tools and "nut blanks", but if you have more than a few guitars it is a skill well worth learning.  Once you have made 3 or 4 nuts that seem to be pretty darn good, you are on your way.
"Badges?  We don't need no stinkin' badges."

Became a Shooting Star when I got my 1st guitar.
Back in '66, I was 13 and that was my fix.
Still shooting for stardom after all this time.
If I never make it, I'll still be fine.


:guitar

The replacement for the defective nut came in.  Now to sand it so the distance from the bottom of each slot to the bottom of the nut matches up, correct?
2000 L-03-E
2012 Epiphone Nighthawk Custom Reissue
1985 Peavey Milestone
2004 SX SPJ-62 Bass
2008 Valencia Solid Cedar Top Classical
2015 Taylor 414ce - won in drawing
2016 Ibanez SR655BBF
???? Mitchell MDJ-10 3/4 scale dread
???? Squier Danocaster

My Sound Cloud

Quote from: rockstar_not on May 21, 2017, 10:59:04 AM
The replacement for the defective nut came in.  Now to sand it so the distance from the bottom of each slot to the bottom of the nut matches up, correct?

Yep, my opinion.

I suppose it's better to sand the bottom than have to adjust each slot individually but I gotta wonder how far off are we? Within a 1/64" to your old one? I'd imagine you'd sand the exact same amount for each end of the nut.
Larrivee OO-05 • Larrivee OOV-03 SS • Larrivee OO-44  • Taylor 322ce • Strat • Soundcloud https://soundcloud.com/jpmist

High e sliding off issue: solved.

New slight issue; intonation of Low E is off a little, with frets 1-7 or 8 a little sharp, sharpness decreasing as one moves up the fretboard.  Is this perhaps the nut slot is not quite deep enough?  I can see where that could be a culprit.  Not an issue with any of the other 5 strings.
2000 L-03-E
2012 Epiphone Nighthawk Custom Reissue
1985 Peavey Milestone
2004 SX SPJ-62 Bass
2008 Valencia Solid Cedar Top Classical
2015 Taylor 414ce - won in drawing
2016 Ibanez SR655BBF
???? Mitchell MDJ-10 3/4 scale dread
???? Squier Danocaster

My Sound Cloud

Quote from: rockstar_not on May 21, 2017, 04:25:46 PM
High e sliding off issue: solved.

New slight issue; intonation of Low E is off a little, with frets 1-7 or 8 a little sharp, sharpness decreasing as one moves up the fretboard.  Is this perhaps the nut slot is not quite deep enough?  I can see where that could be a culprit.  Not an issue with any of the other 5 strings.

Congrats! Glad you got the sliding E squared away and now you can enjoy playing your Taylor without gringind your teeth <grin>

My guess about your intonation issue goes something like this. . .

Below is a cross section of a nutslot. Ideally the slot tapers towards the top of the headstock and the string rests on the very edge of the nut at the red line. Your old nut had the contact point further north of that at the green line, likely due to simple friction wear of the string. So when you installed the new nut the string contact point moved towards the bridge changing the intonation, making it sharper than the old nut due to it's shorter string length.

As far as how deep the nut slot should be, check out this link: http://www.frets.com/FretsPages/Musician/GenSetup/NutAction/nutaction.html

Just my armchair luthier theory perhaps others can weigh in.
:donut2 :coffee :donut
Larrivee OO-05 • Larrivee OOV-03 SS • Larrivee OO-44  • Taylor 322ce • Strat • Soundcloud https://soundcloud.com/jpmist

I'm gonna hit that article soon. I'm playing the Taylor this weekend where I'll be the 2nd steel string and playing capo'ed higher stuff for the post part. No intonation issues to speak of.
2000 L-03-E
2012 Epiphone Nighthawk Custom Reissue
1985 Peavey Milestone
2004 SX SPJ-62 Bass
2008 Valencia Solid Cedar Top Classical
2015 Taylor 414ce - won in drawing
2016 Ibanez SR655BBF
???? Mitchell MDJ-10 3/4 scale dread
???? Squier Danocaster

My Sound Cloud

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